Friday, November 22, 2013

What are the Petrarchan and anti-Petrarchan elements in Shakespeare's Sonnet 130?

In Shakespeare's Sonnet 130,
the Petrarchan elements are few since the development of the English sonnet led away
from Petrarch's structure and expression of ideas. One Petrarchan
element
is that Sonnet 130 has fourteen lines; this is in keeping with
the form that Petrarch established. Another Petrarchan element is that the
volta--or turn from one idea to a
contrastive idea--occurs at line 9, though it heralds a minor contrast. Finally, Sonnet
130 is a love sonnet, albeit a wry one stated ironically: Most love sonnets praise the
majestic beauty and loveliness of the beloved, whereas 130 immortalizes her
imperfections.


The anti-Petrarchan elements
are a few more in number. One such element is that one single idea is
developed through out the first 12 lines: the slightly unappealing qualities of his
beloved. Petrarch's sonnets compared two contrastive ideas, such as the beloved's
feelings at her impending death and the contrastive idea of the poet's feelings at her
death ("She ruled in beauty o'er this heart of
mine").


Other anti-Petrarchan elements are the
structure and rhyme scheme.
Sonnet 130 is structured with 3 quatrains (4 lines) and an ending couplet, with
voltas (turns of thought) possible--but not required--at lines 5
and 9. Petrarch's sonnets are structured as an opening octave (8 lines) followed by a
sestet (6 lines). The rhyme scheme of 130 is that established for the English sonnet:
abab cdcd efef gg. The Petrarchan
rhyme scheme is abbaabba in the octave
and one of several options for the sestet,
including:


cddcdc
cdeced
cdecde
cdcdcd
cdcedc


Another
anit-Petrarchan element is the resolution. Sonnet 130 has a
surprise ending that can be said to be in keeping with the English sonnet resolution
that offers an epiphany as the resolution to the tension in the sonnet. In 130, the
epiphanic resolution is that the speaker thinks his love as much of a marvel as any
other beauty (to whom she would be wrongly compared): "I think my love as rare /  As any
she belied with false compare." Sonnet 130 follows the English sonnet form of putting
the resolution to the tension of the poem in a rhyming couplet. Petrarch resolved
sonnets in the last three lines of the sestet, which might be in one of the several
rhyme schemes (including those above), like
dce:


readability="8">

Assuredly but dust and shade we
are,
Assuredly desire is blind and brief,
Assuredly its hope but
ends in death.
("She ruled in beauty o'er this heart of mine" by
Petrarch.)



The
volta in Sonnet 130 also presents an anti-Petrarchan element.
Petrarch's line 9 voltas turn from contrasting ideas that are being
compared to each other, such as in the above example, from her to him. The line 9
volta in Sonnet 130 is a minor turn from one emphasis to another
emphasis within the same idea: It is Renaissance innovation that allows English sonnets
to develop one single idea through the whole sonnet up to the resolution. In 130 the
volta turns from physical comparisons between his love's qualities
and the natural world. For example, the poetic speaker compares her eyes and lips to sun
and coral and her cheeks to roses. Following the volta, lines 9
through 12 compare her to abstract ideas: her speech is compared to music and her walk
to how a goddess gets about the world:


readability="7">

I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My
mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
....


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